NRA board member and rock star Ted Nugent wrote a letter to Vice
President Joe Biden offering his assistance as Biden has been appointed
to head Obama’s task force on gun violence. The letter was published
by the
Washington Times on Dec. 31.
Joe,
Congratulations on your appointment to lead a presidential commission to end gun-related violence.
As
a National Rifle Association board member, husband, father,
grandfather, law enforcement officer and genuinely concerned American, I
too want nothing more than to see evil, senseless massacres stopped. I
concur with the president and caring people everywhere: It’s time to end
these slaughters.
As you gather your team to study massacres and
how to stop them, I offer to you my services and a lifetime of expertise
on guns in all their implementations. While I strongly differ with
President Obama on many issues, I agree with him that we must work with
all we can possibly muster to end these tragedies.
As you begin to
formulate your thoughts on how to proceed with your task, I hope your
starting point is to provide the president with the facts regarding
these slaughters and to offer him common-sense recommendations that are
void of a political agenda and will actually make a meaningful
difference. If the American people smell a political agenda here, that
will only bog down our efforts.
In the spirit of goodwill and a
deep desire to end gut-wrenching, incredibly sad and senseless rampages,
I offer you the following recommendations:
I encourage you to
persuade the president to lead this effort by providing a number of
public service announcements. The announcements should include watching
out for each other, encouraging parents to be more involved in their
children’s lives regarding entertainment choices, and knowing various
indicators we should watch for in people who are unstable.
Clearly,
the focus on solving these mass murders must be on the mentally ill. In
almost every instance of mass killing, there were ample red flags and
warning alarms that either were avoided or were not acted upon by mental
health professionals, family members, friends and acquaintances. While I
deeply respect an individual’s privacy and civil liberties, the
American people need basic awareness of what indicators to look for
regarding potentially violent, psychotic people. Our collective safety
begins with being collectively vigilant.
You will find in your
assessment that all of the massacres have occurred in gun-free zones.
What gun-free zones create is an environment where good people are
unarmed and virtually defenseless against an unstable person intent on
committing mass murder. Gun-free zones are modern killing fields. I
implore you to recommend that Congress pass a law to ban gun-free zones
immediately.
Just like your full-time,
armed security detail, qualified citizens with authorized, legal
concealed-carry permits should be able to carry weapons virtually
everywhere to protect themselves, their loved ones and innocents.
I
also implore you to strongly consider recommending that trained school
officials have access to weapons to protect students. Just as airline
pilots may have access to a weapon to prevent another Sept. 11 mass
murder, school officials also should be trained to stop shooting sprees
at our schools.
I don’t encourage you to recommend a ban on any
weapon, magazine capacity or type of ammunition. That won’t accomplish
anything other than prevent the 99.9 percent of responsible, law-abiding
Americans from enjoying these modern weapons as we do now. We should
never recommend or develop public policy that restricts the rights of
the good guys based upon what evil people do or might do. If that were
the case, alcohol still would be banned. As you may know, drunk drivers
kill an estimated 12,000 Americans each year and hurt tens of thousands
more.
I encourage you also to keep this misnamed “gun violence” in
perspective. While all deaths are tragic, the vast majority of
gun-related murders and violence are committed by gang members who do
not use guns that look like — but do not perform like — military assault
weapons. The majority of crimes that involve a firearm are committed
with handguns. I concurred with you back in 2008 when you stated, “If
[Mr. Obama] tries to fool with my Beretta, he’s got a problem.” I trust
you still maintain those sentiments.
Again, I offer you my services and a lifetime of expertise. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Ted Nugent
Mr. Nugent is an American rock ‘n’ roll, sporting
and political activist icon. He is the author of “Ted, White, and Blue: The Nugent Manifesto” and
“God, Guns & Rock ‘N’ Roll” (Regnery Publishing).
